Sun Riot/History of Experimental Solar and Energy Efficient Design

with Steve Baer, Rahel Hartmann Schweizer, Caroline Maniaque-Benton, Antoine Rocca, Oscar Tuazon.

Experimental architecture of the past century has been noted for formal innovation and improvisatory technique, but one of the most important neglected contributions of ‘outlaw’ architecture has been in the field of energy efficiency. Recycled building materials, low-impact construction techniques, passive heating and cooling technologies, super-insulated structures, and passive solar, which are increasingly part of the vocabulary of mainstream architecture today, all began as experiments in alternative living.The explosion of ‘outlaw’ architecture in the early 1970s was equally a revolution in publishing. The reference book or building manual became a crucial means of dispersing ideas, plans, materials and techniques throughout a globally connected network of independent builders, home owners, and self-taught architects.


Alive Architecture|Techniques for Today
Techniques for Today|Building for Environmental Extremes
with Oliver Storz, Hannes Schwertfeger, Piet Vollaard, Jerry Garcia, Antoine Rocc, Oscar Tuazon.

Building with living material, and the cultivation of plant life for architecture is an almost universal practice with increasingly sophisticated techniques for engineering the growth of materials. Increasingly it is possible—and necessary—to imagine entire building systems that integrate their environment, react to seasonal change, and adapt over time. What does it mean to grow a building today? The Zome House, built during an energy crisis, was an early attempt to develop techniques for self-sufficiency and autonomy from the power grid. The urgency to develop energy efficient techniques is increasing, in large part due to the effects of global climate change. If we were to redesign the Zome today, to bring it up to code for an era of climate extremes, what would be the important innovations to include in Zome House version 2.0?

A Kind of Jazz|Masterstudio Design
with Ephraim Ebertshäuser, Julia Leitmayer, Thomas Lommée.

Reflecting on the potentials of crosspollination of disciplines – from design to science and art – events, people and ideas, Ephraim Ebertshäuser and Julia Leitmayer, both students at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel and participants of the Masterstudio; and Thomas Lommée, Brussel-based designer and guest lecturer will present their installations within the Zome Alloy structure.


Green Light
Workshop with Olafur Eliasson and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Conceived by Eliasson as a metaphorical green light for refugees and migrants, Green Light testifies to the agency of contemporary art and its potential to initiate processes of civic transformation. Over the two days, students from the Academy of Design in Basel will join refugees to jointly assemble Eliasson's green light lamps. The lamps are available for a donation of CHF350. The donation supports the Red Cross Vienna and Caritas Vienna.